A COOPERATIVE DRIVING NLMPC FOR REAL TIME COLLISION AVOIDANCE

A decentralized cooperative driving Non Linear Model Predictive Control (NLMPC) approach for path following and collision avoidance is presented in this paper. The proposed decentralized approach is based on an information network, which communicates when two or more vehicles are near and so they might collide. In the case in which vehicles are far, online trajectory control is independently computed on-board by means of a NLMPC. When two or more vehicles get closer, trajectory control is no more independently carried out: optimal solution for these vehicles is coupled and thus their trajectories are computed dependently. Performance of the proposed decentralized NLMPC for cooperative driving was assessed through numerical simulations involving two vehicles. Results were compared with ones of a centralized approach to assess optimality of the solution.